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Roman Empire

This handout photo taken on June 25, 2023, by Parco Archeologico di Pompei (Archaeological Park of Pompeii), shows workers excavating an archaeological site. (Handout / Parco Archeologico di Pompei press office / AFP)
December 10, 2025, 11:40 am
Discovery at Pompeii reveals the secrets of ancient Roman concrete
Scene of Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 CE contains a construction site where unfinished walls, dry materials and tools have endured
By Will Dunham
Ancient roman road and ruins with trees and cloudy sky in Ostia Antica. (Janos Varga/iStock by Getty Images)
November 11, 2025, 8:45 am
All the roads that led to Rome spread way further than previously known
Study ‘connects the dots on a continental scale,’ finds nearly 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) of roads from Spain to Syria
By CHRISTINA LARSON
Divers watch as a crane pulls an artifact from the waters at Abu Qir Bay in Alexandria on August 21, 2025, during recovery of sunken antiquities. (Khaled Desouki / AFP)
August 22, 2025, 8:31 am
Egypt unveils 2,000-year old ruins carefully extracted from waters off Alexandria
Cranes and divers rescue merchant ship, statue of Roman nobleman and ancient sphinx bearing name of Ramses II, among other precious artifacts in Ptolemaic city drowned by time
By AFP
Left: A 1900-year-old bronze disc shaped like a lion head found in Khirbat Ibreika near Kfar Saba. Right: The tomb where the disc was found, together with glass vessels. (Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority - Assaf Peretz/Israel Antiquities Authority)
June 26, 2025, 7:54 pm
Enigmatic bronze lion heads found in 1,900-year-old tomb in central Israel
Discovered near Kfar Saba, the ornate coffin fittings may hint at ties to pagan cults — or a Roman soldier’s final journey
By Rossella Tercatin
Four rare Bar Kochba Revolt-era coins found in the Judean Desert, in an undated photo. (Oriya Amichai/Israel Antiquities Authority)
May 16, 2025, 5:29 am
Who really led the Bar Kochba revolt? New research sheds light on rebellion’s enigmas
Recent paper suggests Jewish veterans from the Roman army may have initially led the 2nd-century Jewish war against the Romans, one of the events connected with Lag B’Omer
By Rossella Tercatin
Dr. Jodi Magness from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as she excavates at Huqoq in the Galilee. Magness and her team began excavating the site in 2011 and concluded their fieldwork in 2023. (Jim Haberman)
March 15, 2025, 7:22 am
Could 1,600-year-old Galilee synagogue rewrite history of Jewish life under the Romans?
New radiocarbon dating at grand Huqoq sanctuary near Tiberias puts its construction after the empire embraced Christianity, suggests Jews in Holy Land still enjoyed ‘relative prosperity’
By Rossella Tercatin
Archaeologists at Ostia Antica near Rome, Italy, unveiled what they believe is the oldest mikveh ever found outside the land of Israel in March 2025. (Parco archeologico di Ostia antica)
March 14, 2025, 12:14 pm
Roman-era Jewish bath in Italy may be oldest outside of Israel, points to vibrant Diaspora
Newly excavated site in Ostia Antica, dating as early as the 3rd century CE, offers fresh insight and new enigmas about the city’s potential melting pot of Roman Empire communities
By Rossella Tercatin
Archaeologists from Bar Ilan University, in cooperation with the Staff Officer of Archaeology, excavated the site of Sartaba/Alexandrium in the Jordan Valley in February 2025. The excavation’s director Dr. Dvir Raviv from Bar Ilan, points to a column capital on the eastern slope of the hill. (Rossella Tercatin/Times of Israel)
March 6, 2025, 5:56 am
Jewish rebels and earthquake rubble: New dig aims to solve a pair of historical enigmas
Sartaba/Alexandrium was built by the Hasmoneans and expanded by Herod. A team of archaeologists has launched a first excavation in 40 years to probe the final days of the fortress
By Rossella Tercatin
An archaeological site under Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate featuring a 2nd century CE Roman gate and plaza dating was opened to the public on February 26, 2025. (Rossella Tercatin/Times of Israel)
March 5, 2025, 2:45 pm
Biblical-themed exhibit inaugurated at Roman site under Damascus Gate in Jerusalem
A 2nd-century gate in the Old City’s Muslim Quarter offers a glimpse into the capital’s multilayered history — and complex present
By Rossella Tercatin
Archaeologists from Bar-Ilan University, in cooperation with the staff officer of archaeology, excavated the site of Sartaba/Alexandrium in the Jordan Valley in February 2025. (Yodan Flaytman, staff officer for archaeology in Judea and Samaria)
February 12, 2025, 11:09 am
Inscription found in Alexandrium fortress could shed new light on Jewish Revolt
Israeli researchers decipher an ostracon in a grand 1st-century structure in the Jordan Valley that could prove Jewish rebels used the site in their fight against Rome
By Rossella Tercatin
A 1,900-year-old papyrus written in Greek has been deciphered for the first time by a group of Israeli and Austrian scholars. The artifact, renamed Papyrus Cotton, features the notes of a trial in the period leading up to the Bar Kochba revolt. (Shai Halevi, Courtesy of the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, Israel Antiquities Authority)
January 30, 2025, 5:18 am
Fraud, forgery and sedition: 1,900-year-old papyrus records Roman trial against Jews
New research on the longest Greek papyrus from the Judean Desert ever discovered offers unprecedented insights into life in the Land of Israel in Bar Kochba era
By Rossella Tercatin
Left: A Roman-era boundary stone found at the site of Abel Beth Maacah in Northern Israel. (Tal Rogovsky); right: Likely head of Emperor Diocletian, Istanbul Museum of Archaeology (Wikipedia)
January 26, 2025, 5:01 pm
Roman-era boundary stone hints at a political tiff described in the Jerusalem Talmud
Unearthed in Upper Galilee, 3rd century CE artifact might prove rumored tensions between Emperor Diocletian and local population; also mentions two hitherto unknown Golan villages
By Rossella Tercatin
View of the Baneas cave, associated with Pan worship. (Doron Gahali/courtesy)
December 2, 2024, 9:35 am
In a watery Golan cave, Herod’s great-grandson entertained in the Roman imperial style
An altar dedicated to the cult of Pan was likely converted to a banquet area by Herodian ruler Agrippa II, aligning with the account of Josephus, new research shows
By Gavriel Fiske
'Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down),' by painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. (Public domain via JTA)
December 1, 2024, 2:04 am
There are no Jewish fighters in ‘Gladiator II.’ But what about in ancient Rome?
‘It’s pretty clear from Josephus and from the archaeology’ that gladiators fought in Caesarea, says NYU professor; Israeli actors Lior Raz and Yuval Gonen among modern-day cast
By Luke Tress
Aerial view of the historical Masada fortress, near the Dead Sea, December 3, 2021.(Moshe Shai/Flash90)
September 6, 2024, 1:05 am
Masada legend upended: ‘The Romans came, saw and conquered, quickly and brutally’
The costly Roman operation was likely undertaken only after Masada-based Jewish forces raided nearby Ein Gedi and disrupted production of balsam, a precious commodity, TAU prof says
By Gavriel Fiske
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